President Ersin Tatar has said that he was proud to be defending the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people and Türkiye.

He said that any settlement to be reached in Cyprus needed to be a two-state solution based on sovereign equality and cooperation between the two states on the island.

Tatar was speaking at a conference on the Cyprus Issue organised at the Istanbul Altınbaş University.

Delivering a speech at the conference titled “The Strategic Importance of the island of Cyprus and the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people,” President Ersin Tatar said that the Cyprus Issue was a national cause for the Turkish nation.

He pointed out that Turkish Cypriots had experienced long and painful years after the island had been annexed by the British following the outbreak of World War I.

Tatar explained that the population balance had shifted in favour of Greek Cypriots after Cyprus had become a British colony.

“The late founding President Rauf Denktaş always gave the example of Crete, stating that we should be careful so that a repetition of the events on the island did not take place in Cyprus,” he said, adding that Türkiye had always been by the side of the Turkish Cypriot people.

Tatar went on to explain how the Turkish Cypriot people were liberated and gained their freedom with the July 20, 1974 Turkish Peace Operation.

He added that the heroic Turkish Armed Forces were successful in thwarting an attempt by the Greek Junta to transform Cyprus into a Greek island.

“Cyprus turning into a Hellenic Republic would have had serious consequences for Türkiye”, said Tatar, adding that he was proud to be defending the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriot people and Türkiye.

The president complained that since 1974, the world continued to recognize the Greek Cypriots as the sole government on the island which was a violation of the constitution of the 1960 Republic.

He said that Greek Cypriots have also rejected all solution proposals and plans to date.

“It has become impossible to reach a federal settlement in Cyprus with the Greek Cypriots joining the EU which has also made matters on the island more complicated. Thus we have adopted a new policy in Cyprus, a settlement based on two equal and sovereign states that can cooperate with one another,” he said.

Tatar added that the TRNC was a reality and that it was out of the question for Turkish Cypriots to accept a settlement that will lead to their assimilation and destruction.